Professional Documents
Culture Documents
At this point of the story, you can think Nazis lost and this is the end. But its just the
beginning of the way to the horror of WW II.
Hitler used his trial to spread his ideas and the judges were impressed. He was
sentenced to 5 years in prison with the possibility to be released after 6 months.
In fact, Hitler served only 8 months and used this time to write his book Mein
Kampf.
The putsch made Hitler change his strategy : he then decided to act legally to
obtain the power, with the consequences that we all know.
thousand members. In 1921, after the accomodation, there were about 250 000
members.
On October, 24th 1922 -> annual congress of the fascist party. Mussolini, leader of
the party, ordered the black shirts (paramilitary wing) to take control of public
buildings and roads around Rome. This event is called March on Rome. King
Victor Emmanuel III was worried and decided to appoint Mussolini as Prime
Minister of Italy.
Mussolini had first to form a coalition government. But the Italian Parliament
passed the Acerbo Law, which purpose was to give the fascist party a majority of
deputies.
Through intimidation and this law, the fascists won the 1924 election. On January,
3rd 1925, Mussolini proclaimed himself dictator of Italy and announced the
dismissal of parliament.
From 1925 to 1929 : fascists secured their power ( ex : censorship).
Music
I want to introduce you a music style which was very popular and successful during
the 20ies.
Operetta :
Operetta is a music style mixing comedy, singing and dance.
Very popular during the second half of the XIXth century but almost disppears with
the begin of the XXth and with WW I.
Reborn of this style after the Armistice with the componist Henri Christin. Christin
was conductor at the Concert europen, a music hall located Place Clichy in
Paris.
Its operetta Phi-Phi (created in 1918), about the love stories of sculptor Phidias, was
very sucessful, running for three years without interruption at the Bouffes-Parisiens.
There were a lot of imitators such as Le petit Phi-Phi (march 1922) or Les amants
de Phi-Phi (march 1923). Phi-Phi was the first piece to use the latest rythms of jazz
(one-step, fox trot). It was translated into English and the english version had also a
great success.
An other operetta of Christin, Dd, followed Phi-Phi in 1921 at the BouffesParisiens. However, it didnt manage to have the same success as its forerunner.
An other componist, Maurice Yvain couldnt stay away of this new phenomene. Its
operetta L Haut followed Dd at the Bouffes-Parisiens. Its an operetta with a
funny text and american influences. L Haut refers to the paradise. In this short
extract, the main character is asking St Peter if the life conditions in the paradise
are similar to those in the real life.
These new operettas are played by less than ten people and a handful of musicians
(sometimes just a piano). For this reason, they could be played in small theatres.